Fifth Aliyah

The Fifth Aliyah refers to the fifth wave of the Jewish immigration to Israel from Europe and Asia between the years 1929 and 1939. The Fifth immigration wave began after the 1929 Palestine riots, and after the comeback from the economic crisis in Israel in 1927, during the period of the Fourth Aliyah. The end of this immigration wave was with the start of World War II.

This immigration wave beginning as a pioneering one but with more decent dimensions, received the character of a mass immigration between the years 1933-1935 due to the racial persecution in Nazi Germany. The riots in Israel during 1936 had weakened the immigration wave but during the years 1938-1939 thousands of immigrants came, part of them illegally.

The causes for the Immigration

• The rise of Hitler and the Nazi Party to power, caused a big tremor to the lives of the Jews in Germany and Eastern Europe, who weren't permitted to return and be the economy leaders. The Jews in Nazi Germany suffered from a big wave of aggressive straightforward anti-semitism, and many decided to immigrate to the Land of Israel. In August 1933 a transmission agreement was reached between the Jewish agency and the Nazi authorities. Based on that Jews leaving Germany were paid for their assets while according to German law at that period Jews had to give up their assets in order to leave Germany. Also German merchandises were imported to the Land of Israel. The agreement serving interests on both sides helped the immigration to continue.
• The exchange of the British colonial administrator - the new British new colonial administrator, Arthur Wauchope, was pro-Zionist and gave many immigration permits and encouraged the Jewish economy and the Zionist settlement.
• The economic growth in Israel - the transmission agreement with Germany bringing large amounts of money was a starting point to the recovery of the Israeli economy after the crisis of the late 1920s.
• The closing of gates to the United States - in 1924 the United States decided to condense the immigration and even during the period of the Fifth Aliyah the US kept it's gates closed to the majority of immigrants in spite of knowing the tough situation of the Jews in Europe.
• The anti-semitism in the world prevailed - many more regimes in mainly European countries adopted a policy of anti-semitism which encouraged the riots, the persecution and the economic and social limitations on Jews.